A New Way to Travel : Community-Based Rural, Sustainable Tourism
Tourist destinations are often packaged so that everything is a photo opportunity, and tourists are shown only one side of a country, the part that sells well. It is not always easy to get off the tourist trail and see how life is lived every day.
Costa Rica has not escaped this tendency. It is promoted as a natural paradise, and more than a million tourists arrive every year to visit its forests, volcanoes and beaches. However, not many have the chance to get to know ticos and ticas during their stay.
In contrast, people who choose rural community tourism get to participate in everyday life, and feel more like guests than like tourists. The small inns mentioned in this book are located in rural communities, natural reserves, or indigenous territories which have not changed their way of life to adapt to the needs and tastes of mass tourism.
The communities in this guidebook have decided how they want to present themselves to visitors. They direct and run their own operations, and they are proud to share who they are and what they do, plus the impressive natural and cultural riches they have inherited.
Many people criticize the current model of tourism development, and are worried about the negative impacts that tourism has on culture, the environment and local economies. Rural community tourism respects host communities, their guests, and the planet that we all share.
Nature lovers can visit wild areas accompanied by a local guide who explains the traditional uses of the plants and local forest lore, transmitting experience rather than mere information.
Our understanding of community-based rural tourism?
“Rural community tourism consists of planned touristic experiences which are integrated sustainably with the rural environment and developed by local citizen organizations for the benefit of the community.” --Costa Rican Tourism Board, UNDP and the Alliance for Rural Community Tourism, 2005)
The six characteristics that define rural community tourism are that it:
1 - Integrates natural beauty and the daily life of rural communities
2 - Promotes productive sustainable practices within its tourism offerings
3 - Adapts itself to the dynamics of rural life and preserves the idiosyncracies and the welcoming, relaxed, rustic atmosphere that characterize the rural areas of the country.
4 - Is maintained by local initiative and participation, and strengthens local organizations, which are made up of various families or of the community as a whole.
5 - Integrates the local populace in this economic activity, distrubutes the benefits evenhandedly, and supplements farming income.
6 - Promotes land ownership by the local population.
How did community-based tourism come about?
Costa Rica has a strong culture of community activism. Even in the smallest village, it is easy to find an association that works for community development or conservation. Gradually these organizations became interested in tourism as an economic alternative that would allow them to create new opportunities with their own natural resources. Thus a new kind of tourism was born: tourism for sustainable development!
Without abandoning their traditional farming and fishing, many community organizations have incorporated these new activities, through training programs and with the cooperation of various NGOs as well as the Costa Rica government.
In this way, tourism has generated progress in many rural areas. It has been especially good for women and youth, who have found new ways to contribute to the economic well-being of their famililies.
Community-based rural tourism is having a positive impact economically, socially and environmentally. Following are some examples:
• It favors local development and strengthens community organizations.
• It supplements and diversifies sources of income for farming, fishing and indigenous families.
• Develops local entrepreneurial capacity
• It helps stop migration to the cities and the sale of farmland to foreigners.
• It values and thus helps to preserve local culture.
• It encourages the active participation of women
• It promotes conservation and the formation of community forest and marine reserves.
• It allows local families to take advantage of their natual resources in a sustainable way.
It’s hard to express the variety and richness that you can experience with rural community tourism. So the best thing to do is cross the threshold and start the adventure of getting to know this beautiful country in a different way : ¡Jump into to The Real Costa Rica!
If you would like to learn more about the communities and their conservation efforts, please click here
If you would like to learn more about the indigenous people, please click here
If you would like to learn more about protected areas in Costa Rica, please click here
For more information about general traveling around the globe, we suggest Travelwebdir.com.
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